Traditionally, planning the manufacture of a product occurs after a customer orders the product. A salesman may receive information regarding the customer's requirements, contact a product manager to generate a configured product solution, look up pricing in price lists, contact a sales manager to confirm discounts and terms, conduct a credit check, and contact a manufacturing representative to determine dates the product may be available. After gathering all this information, the salesman may contact the customer to seek approval of details of the order. Once the customer approves the order, a manufacturing department may plan and schedule production of the ordered product. Planning usually takes place periodically using batch processing.